I've now managed to acquire photos for all stages of my Challenge, completing my last 4: Birth, Childhood, Marriage and Pensioner.
- The photo of the mushroom, I am going to use for the childhood stage. To a child, mushrooms like these are often known as 'magic mushrooms' and represent that imaginative and creative time of a child's life where they believe in magic and fantasy and all that the world can offer them.
- The second photo, I am going to use for birth. The sign saying 'New Life' represents birth - every birth is the beginning of a new life, and also as this will be the first photo in the album, the arrow pointing to the right works well to progress to the other photos.
- The third photo, I am going to use for the Pensioner stage. Cameos often give the impression of being vintage and old, and until they recently came back into fashion, were worn mostly by those of the older generation.
- The last photo, of the Eiffel Tower, I am going to use for the Marriage section - Paris is often called the City of Love and as the Eiffel Tower is such a symbol of the city, I thought this would be a good photo to use.
Time Taken: 15 minutesTotal Time Taken: 8 hours 45 minutes
For the University part of life I decided to use a photo from Tottenham Court Road. This photograph depicts a part of the underground and on the walls of the corridor are advertisements for films, shows, musicals, and bands. I thought that this illustrates a large part of university life - the entertainment and fun aspects, the culture part of university.
For this photograph I turned the background black and white to make it less prominent but kept the colour of the advertisements. Then I brightened the advertisements, before increasing the saturation of their colour. Before finally adding a slight warming filter to make the advertisements seem more inviting and appealing as this is what they set out to do - attract young people, especially students, to pay to see the films and shows so that they can gain profit. This one took me a particular length of time as I needed to cut each advertisement carefully and make sure the image was still clear and bright after the adjusments.
Time taken = 1 hour
Total time taken = 8 hours 30 minutes
This pocket watch was one I came across when looking for inspiration for my photos. I saw it and instantly thought of retirement - the reason for this is that it symbolises time is running out in the work place, and a lot more time will be on the persons hands after retirement. Also a watch is often given at retirement.
To edit this picture I duplicated the watch image and then reduced the hue of the background so that this was less prominent. I then increased the hue of the watch so that it was more obvious and added a bit of a blur for mystique. Following this I created a dark shadow of the watch and placed it directly upon it. Retirement usually happens towards the end of a person's life (though with increasing life expectancy this is not often the case any more) and so this shadow suggests that something is catching up with them, the end of their life is approaching.
I had to take time out due to other work and commitments but now I am getting back on track with working on the project.
Time taken = 45 minutes
Total time taken = 7 hours 30 minutes
I couldn't resist taking a photo of these doughnuts to use in my Challenge, and of which I intend to bring out the vibrancy of their colour which the photograph took away.
Now my exams are finished I have been able to get back to doing some work on my Arts Challenge. I've started with editing some of the photos I have, as I have now gained quite a collection of photos to work with. Like I've already said I'm not designating a time in life to each photo before I have edited them, I usually do have a time in mind, however this can change while I am editing due to the lighting effects used can give me new ideas. Even once edited, the photos do not have a set time of life to be suitable for, I know where I want them to go, however when I come to put them all together this may change if I see that they are suited elsewhere.
Once I have a range of completed photos I will start putting them into an order that is not set, but does give me an outline to how far along I am.
The first picture was done by altering the saturation, brightness and contrast of the original photo to make the colours brighter and be more different than you usually see during sunset. Then using Photoshop CS3 I blur the bottom and the bottom right of the photo and sharpened the top and the top left to make the effect that the good things had passed and troubling times were just approaching. I am planning on using this for the Teenager stage to show how this is the time when we often find we have the most troubles and is the most confusing part of life, and also we are leaving the calm and innocence of childhood where we worry about nothing, into a more mature age where we are more independent.
The second picture was done by lowering the saturation so that the photo was almost black and white. Then using Photoshop CS3 I made the saturation of the chairs very high. This emphasises how the chairs are empty and represents loneliness, a time of being on your own in new settings. I am planning on using this for the Lower School part of the Teenage age as it is a time where you move from Primary to Secondary, often on your own or only with a few of your friends and you have to learn new rules in a completely new setting and know few people so have to make friends.
The third picture was done using Photoshop CS3 changing the hues of the different bottles/liquids/tops and then making the saturation higher. I've tried to achieve the effect of how everything is different and perceptions are changed under alcohol. I am planning on using this for the Adult part of life as in many people especially in the 21st century, alcohol is a large part of their lives.
Time taken = 2 hours 30 minutes
Total time taken = 4 hour 15 minutes
I did also take a couple of more photos as the opportunity to use photos with snow in, with our current weather, was too much to pass by.
Today again I took more photos which will be edited to include in my final album.
While working on my school assignments I looked out the window to see a spectacular sunset where the sky was a variety of differen colours and hues, with the clouds making many varied shapes. The sky suggested change, inner turmoil and those disruptive times when you have too much to do with too little time and you don't truly know how you feel.
While I do not want to edit these photos extensively as I may lose these thoughts from the photos, I'd like to brighten the colours more, make them stand out and draw these feelings out more.
Time taken = 10 minutes
Total time taken = 1 hour 40 minutes
Today I took some photos while I was out and about which I am planning to use for my Challenge.
Some of the photos were taken at school, one of the pond/swamp and a couple of the football team during a practice. The photos of the tomatoes and the bottles I took at home this evening from in my conservatory.
While none of the photos look particularly interesting at the moment, once edited I hope they will look a lot more like what they should do.
Time taken = 30 minutes
Total time taken = 1 hour 30 minutes.
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